When Galileo’s old pupil feels let down near the end of the play and exclaims angrily “Unhappy the land that has no heroes”. Galileo replies humbly “No. Unhappy the land that is in need of heroes”. Our scientist is an anti-hero not just for dramatic reasons or historical accuracy, but because Brecht wants to argue for collective rather than... - http://preoccupations.tumblr.com/post...
… people go quiet in the underground. It’s the only time we experience a combination of 21st-century technology (the trains), 19th-century technology and vision (the tunnels, the network) and our paleolithic deep self. A person on the underground is experiencing the rare chance to be a 21st-century Victorian caveman. She is doing something we... - http://preoccupations.tumblr.com/post...
While this story is not short of remarkable details – being rich in Edwardian tropes of mesmerism and exotica, patriotism and fate – perhaps its most remarkable turn is that, despite the burlesque nature of the event, anecdotal reports of the fire form the evidence base of a number of our contemporary building standards. The fire was the subject... - http://preoccupations.tumblr.com/post...
The state healthcare system - the SHS (Scarfolk Health Service) - fiercely encourages people not to be sick.
In 1974 there is a total budget of 29 pounds 102 pence per person. The SHS is very reluctant to help you.
— Scarfolk Council: “Medium-sized illness” State healthcare in early 1970s Scarfolk - http://preoccupations.tumblr.com/post...
I like *other people’s* cities. I like cities where I’m not an eager, engaged, canny urban participant, where I’m not “smart” and certainly not a “citizen,” and where the infrastructures and the policies are mysterious to me. Preferably, even the explanations should be in a language I can’t read. *So I’m maximizing my “inefficiency.” I do it... - http://preoccupations.tumblr.com/post...